Date: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 02:21:17 -0500
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Sender: The Internet TourBus - A virtual tour of cyberspace
Comments: Resent-From: crispen@netsquirrel.com
Comments: Originally-From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
From: Patrick Douglas Crispen
Subject: TOURBUS -- 8 APRIL 1999 -- MS PRODUCT ANALYZER / THE GREAT GAS OUT
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TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S):
Microsoft Product Analyzer / PC on the Great "Gas Out"
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS(ES):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/year2k/pca/pca.htm
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/powers/ridewith.jpg
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/powers/powers.html
Howdy, y'all!
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On with the show ...
--------------------------
Microsoft Product Analyzer
--------------------------
Back in January I told you that Microsoft was working on a free
program called the "Microsoft Product Analyzer" that
scans a user's hard drive to create an inventory of Microsoft
products, compares this inventory to the Microsoft year 2000
compliance product guides, identifies products (if any) for which
the user should download a free software update, and provides
URLs to enable the user to obtain the updates easily.
[quote taken from a Microsoft press release at
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/jan99/y2krespr.htm]
Well, Microsoft's Product Analyzer is finally available for download
at
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/year2k/pca/pca.htm .
The file itself is alarmingly small for a Microsoft product -- it only
takes up 485 K -- so it shouldn't take more than two-and-a-half
minutes to download over a 28.8 modem. The Product Analyzer's system
requirements are also surprisingly friendly:
- An Intel 486 or greater processor, 25 MHz or faster
- At least 2 MB of free hard-disk space to run Setup
- One of the following operating systems:
* Microsoft Windows 95
* Microsoft Windows 98
* Microsoft Windows NT 3.51
* Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
- To run the wizard version of the Microsoft Year 2000 Product
Analyzer, your computer must also have a mouse.
Once you install the Product Analyzer (by running the self-extracting
Y2K.exe program), the program will add a "Microsoft Year 2000 Product
Analyzer" group to your Start menu (under Start --> Programs). All
you have to do is run the program from the Start menu.
Microsoft's Product Analyzer will:
1. Scan your hard drive(s) for any installed Microsoft products;
2. Compare your versions to a built-in database of known Y2K
problems;
3. Launch your Web browser (brace yourself: if Netscape is your
default browser, the Analyzer will actually launch Netscape
instead of IE!);
4. Display an HTML-based "Year 2000 Compliance Summary" showing
you which of your Microsoft products are Y2K compliant and
which need updates. Best of all, since the compliance summary
is just a Web page, you can click on the links in the summary
to download the necessary Microsoft product patches and
upgrades.
My only complaint about the Product Analyzer is that its database
doesn't seem to contain any information about Money 99 (a.k.a. Money
7.00.0724), so I am not quite sure if my version of that program is
Y2K compliant. Other than that, though, the Analyzer works like a
charm. [Unfortunately, I have not heard any word on when, or if,
Microsoft will release a Mac version of the Analyzer. Sorry.]
By the way, if you signed up for Microsoft's free, quarterly, Year
2000 Resource Center CD [see TOURBUS 28 January and 6 February 1999 at
http://www.tourbus.com/archives.htm], you will receive a copy of the
Product Analyzer on the next CD.
-----------------------
PC on the Great Gas Out
-----------------------
By now, you have probably seen that silly email floating around the
Net urging you to "not buy any gasoline on APRIL 30, 1999!!!!!" The
thinking is that if all Americans boycott the gas pumps on April 30th,
gasoline "prices would drop drastically." Hogwash.
Folks, your fearless bus driver has a bachelor's degree in the dismal
science of economics, and I am here to tell you that, using inflation-
adjusted dollars, the cost of gasoline in the United States is
practically the same as it was THIRTY YEARS AGO. We've never had
it so good! You want expensive gas? Go to France! :P
You really want to impact both the level of fuel consumption and the
gasoline prices in the United States? Start carpooling. If you need
some incentive, take a look at a World War II era "car sharing" poster
I recently found in the National Archives:
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/powers/ridewith.jpg .
[Gee, and I always thought that GOD was my co-pilot!]. If *THAT*
doesn't scare you away from driving alone, NOTHING will! :)
By the way, the United States National Archive and Records
Administration has a whole collection of WW2 US propaganda posters
online at
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/powers/powers.html .
We'll talk more about the National Archives next week. :)
TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP(S):
Microsoft Product Analyzer / PC on the Great Gas Out
TODAY'S TOURBUS ADDRESS(ES):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/year2k/pca/pca.htm
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/powers/ridewith.jpg
http://www.nara.gov/exhall/powers/powers.html
---------------------------------
TODAY'S SOUTHERN WORD OF THE WEEK
---------------------------------
FARSCAPE (Noun). An emergency exit.
Usage: "There was a far, but Bubba got out of the building alright
... he used the farscape."
[Special thanks Lee and Wolfe for today's wurd]
You can find all of the old Southern Words of the day at
http://netsquirrel.com/crispen/word.html